A-man930 Posted October 8, 2015 Share Posted October 8, 2015 After over 5 years without a parking brake I finally bit the bullet and pulled the pedal assembly out in an attempt to fix it. I'm not the first guy to document fixing one of these but I took a little different approach and wanted to share my method and progress with y'all. I didn't take any pictures of the slop the pedal had in it before, but you could shift the pedal left to right with your toe and it would release at random... no bueno for a parking brake! I had to remove the fuse block to get to the bolt at the top right of the pedal; on top of that the nut (welded to the body under the fender) broke free and I had to call in some reinforcements to help get it out. Once the drama was over I hosed the whole thing off with some brake clean and ground these two rivet heads off; http://i.imgur.com/BjcivcJh.jpg?1 http://i.imgur.com/hulgBwoh.jpg?1 After these two are free all the individual pieces can be separated and inspected; http://i.imgur.com/1C2xh2mh.jpg http://i.imgur.com/EaVeRmch.jpg http://i.imgur.com/7TpxgUxh.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-man930 Posted October 8, 2015 Author Share Posted October 8, 2015 By the looks of the teeth on the pedal side I figure that the pawl must be grabbing only the inside edge. I took my chances and decided to attempt "sharpening" them up with a file (not very effective) and a really thin wheel on a dremel... Should work fine :crossfingers: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-man930 Posted October 8, 2015 Author Share Posted October 8, 2015 Next, I cut down the top side of the big rivet down a bit past the original surface. The goal here is to get a nice and flat surface to work with that is slightly shorter than the original setup. Next I marked the center and center punched it; Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-man930 Posted October 8, 2015 Author Share Posted October 8, 2015 Next I drilled the stud to 21/64" in preparation for a 3/8" x 24 tap. Note: do this with a drill press if you have one; by hand it was a bit sketchy especially at the last step where I must have wobbled around too much and made the hole juuuuust a bit oversize. The tap process went real crappily and i really thought about going one size up for the stud, but I don't think there's enough material left for reliable results. It'll get lots of red loctite! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-man930 Posted October 8, 2015 Author Share Posted October 8, 2015 I then enlarged the hole in the "top plate" piece and a 5/16" fender washer to accept the 3/8" stud; Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-man930 Posted October 9, 2015 Author Share Posted October 9, 2015 The plate that holds the pawl and release cable came off next; Made a replacement for the smaller rivet removed earlier. Enlarge the hole a wee bit and she just fits in there; Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-man930 Posted October 12, 2015 Author Share Posted October 12, 2015 The rust had to go... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onlyinajeep726 Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Sub'd. Good job, hope it works! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-man930 Posted October 16, 2015 Author Share Posted October 16, 2015 Almost ready to try it out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 And? All I did was change the little spring to fix mine....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-man930 Posted October 17, 2015 Author Share Posted October 17, 2015 Spring tension wasn't an issue on mine. Your repair is what inspired me to go after mine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Spring tension wasn't an issue on mine. Your repair is what inspired me to go after mine! Gotcha. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDude Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Where did you find the spring? Or did you make it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Where did you find the spring? Or did you make it? I made it out of a longer one. The original isn't as strong as the spring in my Bic pen...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-man930 Posted October 18, 2015 Author Share Posted October 18, 2015 My primary issue was the pedal having a bunch of lateral play that caused poor teeth engagement with the pawl; and it had been happening for a while (hence the uneven wear that I had to correct). Simply changing how hard the pawl teeth bit into the pedal teeth would have been a band-aid at best in my case. This should be a permanent fix so long as the stud stays put in those lousy threads I tapped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-man930 Posted October 18, 2015 Author Share Posted October 18, 2015 Here's the other threads I have read: ftpiercecracker1 had this one http://comancheclub.com/topic/34536-diy-e-brake-fix/ cruiser54 your pictures are down and we never got a verdict... http://comancheclub.com/topic/47303-new-parking-brake-fix/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser54 Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 You made me think of something I did and forgot about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-man930 Posted October 18, 2015 Author Share Posted October 18, 2015 Shoot. If your teeth are in reasonable condition I would recommend Cruiser's method before going crazy like I did! I guess your results were good?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-man930 Posted October 24, 2015 Author Share Posted October 24, 2015 Installed it last night. This is a picture of where the bolt passes through the dash brace and the pedal. This is welded to the body from the factory.. 25 years ago. A replacement nut with some RTV does the trick just fine. I'm not sure what else to post besides to say that it works sitting still in the garage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-man930 Posted October 29, 2015 Author Share Posted October 29, 2015 Satisfied to say that I set the brake and walked away from the truck with it idling for the first time in 6 or 7 years; never though something so simple could be so great! :clapping: I had my students clean, lube, and adjust the rear brakes and I adjusted the front cable. Now I just need to find a pedal pad and "stop" to put between the bracket and the pedal. WELL WORTH THE EFFORT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jomanche88 Posted November 28, 2015 Share Posted November 28, 2015 Nice job I'll be doing this soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-man930 Posted November 29, 2015 Author Share Posted November 29, 2015 Its one of the most satisfying repairs I've done on the truck. Sooooo nice to have such a basic function back as it should be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
500 MJ Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 Might be going here soon. Thanks for the write-up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gene Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 Great writeup, thanks! Over the years I've broken several parking brake release cables. They seem to fray at the far end, it doesn't look like there are any sharp edges, I think just repeated use causes them to fail. I've started pressing down on the pedal before pulling the release. When I don't do this, there is quite a bit more force required to release the parking brake. When I press down on the pedal, the release pulls very very easily. I'm guessing it'll be hard to get replacements for the release cable, so I'm hoping this one will last a while! Gene Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snakedoc67 Posted May 11, 2016 Share Posted May 11, 2016 Any idea where I can get the longer return spring that attaches where the cable connects to the pawl? Mine has gone awol and I cannot find a part number in the parts book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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